5.  The applicant was born in 1951 and lives in Kursk.
6.  On 19 July 2000 the Kurskiy Vestnik newspaper published an article by the applicant entitled “Twelve chairs from the Governor's suite of furniture, or How yet another million dollars from the regional budget vanished into thin air” (“Двенадцать стульев из гарнитура губернатора, или Как 'испарился' из областного бюджета еще один миллион долларов”). The article gave an account of the misappropriation of budgetary funds allocated for the purchase of furniture and renovations, and Governor Rutskoy's calm reaction to these events. The relevant parts read as follows (translated from Russian):
“A normal governor in that situation [having received information about the misappropriation of substantial sums from the budget] would certainly clutch his head in horror and start inquiring how the taxpayers' money had disappeared and who was at fault. He would fire those responsible and seek the assistance of the police, the prosecutor's office and the courts in order to make good the loss to the regional budget...
That would be the logical conduct of a normal governor. But our [governor], having received a letter from the head of the audit department..., wrote the following instruction by hand...”
7.  The article then quoted the instruction given by Governor Rutskoy, recommending to his aides that they re-evaluate the work that had been carried out so as to cover up the discrepancy between the amount allocated and the expenses incurred. The article ended in the following manner:
“I do not know what others think, but my view is as follows: a governor who gives such advice is abnormal (ненормальный). Let me clarify, lest I face judicial proceedings: I am talking about the conduct of a [State] official, not Mr Rutskoy's personality, which is none of my business.”
8.  On 1 August 2000 Governor Rutskoy lodged a civil action for defamation against the applicant and the newspaper's editors. He considered certain facts in the applicant's article to be untrue and damaging to his honour, dignity and professional reputation and claimed 250,000 Russian roubles (RUR) in non-pecuniary damages. In particular, the Governor considered the following words from the final paragraph of the article to be insulting: “... a governor who gives such advice is abnormal... I am talking about the conduct of a [State] official...”
9.  On 19 October 2000 the Leninskiy District Court of Kursk allowed the defamation action in part. The court was satisfied that the facts contested by Governor Rutskoy were shown to have been true by the applicant. As regards the final sentence, it found as follows:
“The extract from the article which reads '... a governor who gives such advice is abnormal' represents the opinion of the article's author, however, this opinion is expressed in an insulting manner.
The court cannot agree with [the applicant's] arguments that in using the word 'abnormal' he was referring to the Governor's conduct and not to his personality. A subsequent clarification by the author which reads '...I am talking about the conduct of a [State] official, not Mr Rutskoy's personality' does not eliminate the ambiguity of perception, including [the perception of] an insulting meaning, as the purpose and structure of the main clause suggested that 'abnormal' referred precisely to the word 'governor' and not to his behaviour...
The court considers that the violation of the plaintiff's right to a good name, honour, dignity and professional reputation should be remedied, pursuant to Articles 150, 151 of the Civil Code, by requiring the person who caused it to pay compensation in respect of non-pecuniary damage...”
10.  The District Court held that this extract was “expressed in an insulting manner which damaged the honour, dignity and professional reputation of A. Rutskoy” and ordered that the applicant should pay RUR 1,000 (42 euros (EUR)) to the Governor. The remainder of the Governor's action was dismissed as ill-founded.
11.  On 4 November 2000 the applicant appealed against the judgment. He submitted that the plaintiff had taken the impugned words out of context and that the court had failed to analyse the paragraph as a whole. The word “abnormal” had obviously referred to the acts of Governor Rutskoy as a State official and public figure. Furthermore, according to an authoritative dictionary of the Russian language, the first meaning of the word “abnormal” was “divergent from the norm” and the meaning of “insane, mentally ill” was the second, colloquial meaning.
12.  On 28 November 2000 the Kursk Regional Court upheld the judgment of 19 October 2000. The Regional Court confirmed the first-instance court's finding as to the insulting meaning of the impugned sentence and dismissed the applicant's arguments as follows:
“The grounds of appeal to the effect that the impugned sentence was not insulting because it referred not to the personality, but to the conduct of a public official cannot be taken into account because the [first-instance] court correctly proceeded from the literal meaning of the sentence and the interpretation of that sentence suggested in the points of appeal did not conform to its substance.”